Scoil Chonglais too good for De La Salle
Baltinglass students march on to county final
SCOIL CHONGLAIS 1-8 DE LA SALLE COLLEGE 2-4
SCOIL CHONGLAIS BALTINGLASS reached another Co. Wicklow senior schools football final when just getting the better of De La Salle College, Wicklow, last week in Pearse’s Park.
Baltinglass made all the early running, scoring three good points without reply.
Wicklow introduced Gary Deehan at this stage as a substitute and this brought them more into the game. Wesley Rice had to retire injured after 25 minutes and for the remainder of the half the Baltinglass lads added 1-3 to lead by 1-6 to 0-1 at half-time.
The second half started with De La Salle gaining the initiative. A David Scully point in the eighth minute was followed by goals for Moran and Scully and a Ronan Lally point to leave the scores level 1-6 to 2-3 with 15 minutes remaining.
Brendan Kelly pointed for Baltinglass in the 18th minute to put them back in front but John Joe McCoy equalised from a 45 in the 25th minute.
Exictement was now at fever pitch and with only two minutes to go De La Salle were awarded a penalty by referee Gerry McGoff. Goalkeeper John Loughlin came up all the way to take the penalty as he did for St. Patrick’s in last year’s county Minor final and with similar results as Brian O’Connell saved.
Both teams had further chances to snatch a winner but just when extra-time was looming, Baltinglass full-forward D. O’Connell sent over the winning point.
Scoil Chonglais were well served by Eoin McMahon, Brian Fleming and Brendan Kelly, while best for De La Salle were John Loughlin, Gerry Deehan and David Scully.
Scoil Chonglais: B. O’Connell, E. Walsh, T. Furlong, K. Furlong, B. O’Reilly, S. O’Neill, E. McMahon (0-1), B. Kelly (0-2), J. Whelan, P. Byrne (0-1), B. Coffey (0-1), D. O’Connell (1-1), H. Fitzmaurice.
De La SalleL J. Loughlin, E. Hoare, J. Byrne, C. Murphy (0-1), R. Dignam, J.J. McCoy (0-1), K. Doyle, N. O’Flaherty, H. Wolohan, W. Rice, N. O’Neill, R. Lally (0-1), J. Sullivan, J. Moran (1-0), D. Scully (1-1).
De La Salle’s run of bad luck continued on Friday in Rathnew when they were pipped by Heywood CS in the Leinster Schools ‘C’ senior football semi-final. The winning goal came at a very late stage.
It was mostly one-way traffic at Blessington where St. Bridget’s led by 0-7 to nil at half-time.
John Mooney did get St. Kevin’s in the frame in the second half with a good goal but it was not enough to shake a confident home side.
St. Bridget’s scorers were: M. Richardson (0-4), M. Daniels and J. Behan (0-3 each), A. O’Brien (1-0), M. Walker (0-2).